10 Things I Want To Achieve As A Chef In 2015

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Being a chef is a never-ending learning process. Even if you've made it to the top. So along the way, one must be ready to adapt and take on new challenges. After all, whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Even the best ingredients mean jack-shit if you don't want to keep on learning.

Here's what I want to achieve next year, Insya-Allah.

1. Do more baking and pastry. It's a sore point for me that I should really start working on. I need to master all trades of the culinary arts.
2. At the same time, do more Malaysian cooking: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Nyonya etc. It's great to be able to cook French-style. However I would love to re-learn and gain expertise in the roots of my Asian taste palate because it will influence how and what I cook.
3. Indulge in a bit of haute and nouvelle cuisine. I adore it, still want to do it, and I have too many ideas on recipes and plating but never the time or inclination to put it to plate.
4. Improve all my theoretical, technical and practical skills and knowledge. Do more butchery; knife skills, piping etc.
5. Dine out more in chef-driven restaurants. I need to know what's out there so I can equal or surpass their standards.
6. Use more local produce in my recipes. There's a shit-load of good stuff out there that doesn't require air-flown fuckall and won't cost me a bomb to use.
7. Re-built my tool-box. I've lost too many knives and tools.
8. Read more books about life in the professional kitchen.
9. Write more on professional cooking and how it would help the domestic cook. Write everything and anything about cooking: recipes, tips, anecdotes, experiences.
10. And my ultimate goal: I WANT TO FUCKING WIN A GOLD MEDAL.

Fortune favors the bold.

20 Things That Will Happen When You Become A Chef

Being a chef is one of the best things I've achieved in this life. That's not to say it hasn't come with some peculiar side effect, though..

1. Watching people cook will become difficult.
2. Eating others cooking will become difficult because people expect you to comment on their cooking, which leads to...
3. ... People feeling pressured when they cook for you.
4. "Oh, chef ke? Bagus la, boleh saya minta recipe nanti!"
5. "Sorry ye kalau tak sedap, maklum la, kita ni bukan chef."
6. People ask you when are you going to open a restaurant. All the time.
7. You get calls asking where is a good place to eat...
8. You are expected to know 100% everything there is to know about cooking regardless of your culinary background.
9. "Wah, chef ke? Bagus ni, nanti boleh jadi celebrity macam Chef Wan!"
10. You get asked why you didn't enter Masterchef.
11. And you go on to explain why.
12. You develop a new-found and deep appreciation for all grunt jobs: cleaners, garbage collectors, dishwashers etc
13. You acquire an appreciation for foreign workers and realize how most locals have it good at their jobs.
14. When you cook, you think about how the food will look like on a plate.
15. You very rarely lose your cool with waiters and servers during busy service periods like lunch or weekend dinners.
16. You dream of owning a restaurant. Or chain of restaurants.
17. You wish that Malaysians appreciate the culinary arts more than they say they do.
18. You watch ‘Chopped’ and think about how you’d do things.
19. You watch ‘Masterchef Malaysia’ and think about how you’re glad you didn’t sign up.
20. If you’re a male chef in Malaysia, EVERYONE will ask you if you’re gay.

I have no idea what I'm doing

Yet, I still love my profession

:)

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